County DCYF chief on ropes

Commissioner questions bias in lawmakers' scrutiny

By Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

Updated 10:25 am, Thursday, July 25, 2013

Albany

County DCYF Commissioner Colette Poulin's job is on the ropes after a panel of lawmakers voted Wednesday to reject her reappointment, citing employee complaints of bully tactics and toxic morale in the department charged with helping children and families in crisis.

The 5-3 vote by the County Legislature's Personnel Committee came despite Poulin's lengthy and sometimes tearful defense of her five-year tenure atop the Department of Children, Youth and Families, during which she leveled the explosive allegation that her sexuality had been dragged into the debate over her reappointment to the $94,396-a-year post.

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"I am a very private person and believe this has no bearing on my reappointment," Poulin said, sending a rumble through the crowded conference room.

Poulin did not say who had raised the issue, to whom or when. But after the meeting, Mary Rozak, a spokeswoman for County Executive Dan McCoy, said McCoy's office is investigating an allegation that a "high-ranking" lawmaker broached the topic.

Several lawmakers rushed to discount that notion, saying Poulin's personal life had nothing to do with their concerns about the department.

Afterward, Legislature Chairman Shawn Morse called the claim "way off base," noting the legislature's vote last month to expand the county human rights law to explicitly ban discrimination based on gender identity.

"To even really say that that was ever an issue to me is outrageous," said Morse, a Cohoes Democrat.

The Civil Service Employees Association, the union that represents roughly 210 DCYF workers, has lobbied against Poulin's reappointment to a new five-year term, citing what union spokeswoman Therese Assalian described as her "aggressive and retaliatory" management style.

McCoy's office countered there have been no more grievances reaching the Human Resources Department from Poulin's department in recent years than other major county agencies — and in some cases fewer — and that concerns about her personality may be rooted in sexism.

"I honestly believe that if a man were in that position, we would not be having this issue with her management style," Rozak said.

Poulin acknowledged reports of low morale but said that was the chief issue when she was appointed to take over the department in 2008 by then-County Executive Michael Breslin and will likely remain so, even if she does leave, because of the high levels of personal trauma to which DCYF workers are exposed.

"Unfortunately," she said, "I know of no way to make 210 employees 100 percent happy with every decision I make."